Blog

Specifically, congratulations to the America of white, uneducated, older people including David Duke, the former grand duke of the KKK. To all of those who fear an "immigrant takeover" of our country and are racists. Congratulations Donald Trump.

Recently I read a story about someone on @humansofny 's Instagram account (one of my favorite accounts). The woman started off by saying that she didn't want to sound racist -- a tell tale sign that her sentiments would more likely than not be very racist. Anonymous woman, the best option for not sounding racist is to not say anything racist. She then went on to say that she feared immigrants were coming to the States to have her grandchildren work for theirs. This truly struck me to my core. Those who come to the US are not here because they want to take over, they are here because America is the land of freedom and the land of opportunity. They are here to further the education and quality of life for their families. They are here to work hard. I understand that she wants her grandchildren to be successful, but they'd better work hard because immigrant children are not just showing up and getting better jobs, they're working their asses off and have been their entire lives to get to where they are.

The story of the woman on @humansofny seemingly reflects the feelings of other "working class" white Americans across the nation -- the ones that came together to make Trump our country's president-elect. The dislike and hatred of immigrants by those uneducated white people has been brewing for a while in today's increasingly diverse environment. For them, immigrants had seemingly arrived in "their" country and then took "their" jobs but their own attitude of entitlement is what led to them not receiving those jobs. My parents didn't get to where they are now from playing high school football and having a blast, they knew they would have to work hard, get a good education, and learn to get past language barriers. My parents were not complacent nor did they feel entitled because they knew they would have to work hard for their futures. My parents did not have the upper hand, they did not have an advantage over the average American. Uneducated white Americans had a chance to get good educations, a better chance than what most immigrants had, and yet those immigrants still beat the odds to become more successful.

Nevertheless, we must all stick together as a country in today's divisive world. Despite our differences, together we are America and we must make sure to keep that in mind for the next four years of a Trump presidency.